With the onset of the new Dutch pension system, the relationship between pension funds and their members is changing. Pensions are becoming more personal, transparent and dynamic. Members get more insight, and with it, more questions and uncertainty. They also need to become more involved in their pension.
For PFZW, that created a new challenge: not only to explain what is changing, but to bring pensions closer to the lives of people who spend their working lives taking care of others.
For years, pensions felt like something that was simply taken care of in the background: collective, dependable and distant. The new system changes that. Members gain more visibility of their own situation, but more insight does not automatically mean more control.
For people working in health and well-being, there is another factor. They are there for others on the daily. Their attention is usually on patients, clients, residents, families and colleagues. Not themselves. Certainly not on something that feels far away and complex.
The real question became: how can a pension fund provide direction in a changing pensions world for people whose focus is mostly on caring for others?
The breakthrough was to change the starting point. The pension system was not the protagonist. Nor were the scheme, returns, rules or transition communications. The story began with the people PFZW is there for.
That shifted PFZW’s role:
From: an unburdener in the background.
To: an enabler for people working in health and well-being.
The central idea became:
PFZW helps people who care for others to also take good care of their own future.
That idea made PFZW’s role more human, closer and more active. Not simply explaining what is changing, but helping members understand, make choices and gain more control step by step.
The narrative became a shared foundation for the board, brand, communications and proposition development. It gave PFZW clear language for its changing role: not only a fund that organises pensions well, but a partner that helps members understand what is changing and what they can do themselves.
The movement came by moving from system to human.
From: pension as an abstract scheme.
To: pension as part of the question how you want to live later.
The narrative fed through into brand language, tone of voice, visual language, brand film, proposition development, copy platform, illustration style, explainer formats, photography and the image library.
Truman developed, among others:
